Music
The Band of Gold Mystery
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Freda Payne’s banger ‘Band Of Gold’ sounds like a Motown record, but actually isn’t. Although written by Berry Gordy’s hit-making trio Holland-Dozier-Holland, it was released on their breakaway label, Invictus, on 25th April, 1970. Ever since, fans have speculated as to the meaning of its lyrics and the nature of the crumbled relationship within. “That …
Frank Sinatra: Boxing Photographer
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Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier’s ‘Fight of the Century’ at Madison Square Garden on 8th March, 1971 had the attention of the world – including multiple celebrities. But the photographer LIFE magazine had hired for the event was, nevertheless, a coup: Frank Sinatra. “I’m so mad I could chew nails and spit tax”, wrote former …
Eva Tanguay: Cyclonic Comedienne
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Eva Tanguay, vaudeville megastar, was arrested in Louisville, Kentucky on 1st March, 1910 after stabbing a stagehand three times with a hat pin. At the police station, she reportedly produced a roll of bills and cried, “take it all. And let me go, for it’s now my dinner time.” It was neither the first violent …
The Dress That Launched Google Images
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When Jennifer Lopez turned up on the Grammys’ red carpet wearing a green Versace dress on February 23rd, 2000, there was such a rush from the public to see the image that it became the most searched-for term in Google’s history. As a result – Eric Schmidt later confessed – Google Images was developed and …
Soundtracking the Royal Wedding
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Walking down the aisle to Wagner’s ‘Here Comes The Bride’ and departing to Mendelssohn’s ‘The Wedding March’ remains a popular choice at wedding ceremonies – a precedent established by the Princess Royal Victoria and Prince Frederick of Prussia, who married at St James’s Palace on 25th January, 1858. Unfortunately for Mendelssohn, he’d been dead eleven …
Ozzy vs. Bat
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Ozzy Osbourne orally decapitated a bat live on stage in Des Moines, Iowa on 20th January, 1982; an act that quickly went down as one of the most outrageous moments in rock n roll history. Concertgoer Mark Neal, 17, said the bat was dead long before he threw it on stage. But this was not …
Mariah’s Christmas Hit
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All I Want For Christmas Is You has made Mariah Carey a fortune – but it took an astonishing 25 years for the song to finally reach Number One on the Billboard Hot 100; a feat it achieved on 21st December, 2019, becoming America’s first festive-themed chart-topper since The Chipmunk Song in 1958. When originally …
Sinatra’s Slapstick Kidnapping
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19 year-old singer Frank Sinatra, Jr was snatched from his casino dressing room on 10th December, 1962. His famous father was willing to pay the kidnappers a $1 million ransom – but they insisted they only required $240,000. When the case went to trial, the defence suggested that the Sinatras may have been in on …
Scott and Charlene Get Hitched
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Kylie Minogue and Jason Donavan’s characters in hit soap opera ‘Neighbours’ were wed in 1988, causing a shopping mall riot in Australia, and attracting an astonishing 20 million viewers to the UK transmission on 8th November. Soundtracked entirely by Angry Anderson’s surging power ballad ‘Suddenly’, the ceremony quickly became an iconic moment in 80s telly …
The Day The (Rave) Music Died
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Attending or producing raves was made illegal in Britain with the passing of the Criminal Justice Act on 3rd November, 1994. The government even legislated against electronic dance music, “wholly or predominantly characterized by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats” These unprecedented restrictions were partly in reaction to the moral panic caused after …